Research Consultant

Senior Research and Evidence Consultant

Prevail Fund is exploring a new area of giving, and this consultancy will help determine whether the evidence supports launching a new fund. We are looking for a Senior Research and Evidence Consultant to join us for roughly three months to review promising livelihoods interventions and the organizations delivering them. This is a rare opportunity to shape a major strategic decision for a potential new fund.

About Prevail Fund

Prevail is a new foundation dedicated to pursuing bold goals. We set a social change goal, find philanthropists who have a similar vision, raise a pooled fund, and then make grants. Rather than choosing a general issue area (e.g., education), each pooled fund chooses a simple, targeted goal. For example, our first fund aims to improve foundational education for over 27.5 million Grade 1-3 children across 11 national governments in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Prevail provides patient capital to implementers – primarily in the form of grants that grow over time as our partner organizations scale. In addition to funding, Prevail offers on-the-ground support to help orgs scale, including strategic planning, systems, recruitment, and talent development. Our roots are in the field. Our Co-Founding Board members have a track record of scaling social enterprises that together employ more than 15,000 staff and manage annual budgets exceeding $500M.

In our first three years, we have:

• Provided $55M in funding to date, to support 27 partners across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, growing very quickly

• Helped partners to strengthen foundational learning outcomes for over 3 million children

• Hired 35+ mission-driven team members

• Executed dozens of in-field projects to help support key functions for our implementing partners

About the role

You’ll work closely with the Claudia, Varsha and the research team to help build the evidence base and analysis behind Prevail’s scoping work, forming judgments on what works, what does not, and which interventions have the highest probability of success. The role is best suited to an experienced researcher who can translate evidence into practical decisions and wants their analysis to inform a real strategic choice. The core components of this role are to:

• Help frame the comparison. Work with the team to define the impact metric for comparing interventions on a like-for-like basis, and to build the evidence-levels framework for assessing how much weight each finding should carry.

• Review the evidence. For each of the ~20 organizations, review academic studies, evaluations, public materials, and third-party sources. Capture the headline findings, including cost per unit, impact size, and persistence, and assess how much confidence we should place in each study and why.

• Explain what works and why. For each intervention type, synthesize the evidence to identify how and why the model works, where it breaks down, and what this implies for Prevail’s decision on whether to launch a fund. Assess the strength of the evidence against the evidence-levels framework, and form a judgment on whether the overall evidence base and implementation landscape are sufficient to justify moving forward.

• Manage the cost-effectiveness model. Incorporate insights from the research into the cost-effectiveness model. Update the model as new evidence shifts assumptions or conclusions for a given intervention or organization.

• Help draft the decision memo. Contribute to the memo that will inform Prevail’s decision on whether to launch the fund. Work with the team to translate the evidence, cost-effectiveness analysis, and implementation landscape into a clear recommendation.

Who we’re looking for

We’re looking for someone technically strong, equally comfortable with a literature base and a dataset, who can move quickly across a wide field and turn a messy evidence base into clear, decision-ready conclusions. This is not a support role. We expect you to interpret the evidence, form an independent view, and clearly defend your judgment to the team.

• Experience. 6+ years in research, evaluation, philanthropy, or consulting, including evidence reviews or cost-effectiveness analyses that informed real funding or policy decisions.

• Evidence review and synthesis. An experienced researcher who can review and synthesize academic and field evidence in low- and middle-income contexts, judge study quality quickly, and draw out what matters for a decision.

• Judgment and independence. Self-directed, fast, honest about uncertainty, and comfortable with the ambiguity of early-stage scoping.

• Cost-effectiveness methods. Familiarity with cost-effectiveness analysis (BOTEC or CEA) or GiveWell-style approaches. The ability to build or pressure-test models is not required, but it is a strong plus.

• Domain knowledge is a plus. Familiarity with livelihoods, economic empowerment, or poverty programming.

Consultant contract details

We’re flexible on how we work with the right person. We expect this to be a short-term consultancy over roughly three months. The engagement could be full-time or part-time, depending on the right person’s availability and fit.

• Start date: As soon as possible.

• Contract duration: Around three months.

• Time requirement: Full-time preferred, with part-time arrangements considered for the right candidate.

• Reports to: Claudia Carbajal, Senior Researcher.

• Compensation: Competitive day rate, commensurate with experience.

• Location: Remote, with candidates ideally based within 2/+4 hours of Central Africa Time.

• Travel: Up to 20% of the time, concentrated around the field-visit period, and negotiable. Any required travel expenses will be covered by Prevail Fund.

Application process: Our hiring process is thorough, because there are very specific skills required for this role. Successful candidates will go through:

• Initial call with hiring manager (~30 minutes)

• Work exercise (3 hrs)

• Final panel interview (~60 minutes)

To apply: If you’re excited to help us scale, please apply using the application form. We are taking applications on a rolling basis and will respond to all applications within three weeks.

For more information. For more information on Prevail in general, check out this deck. For info on how we hire at Prevail, check here.

*Note: If you currently work for one of Prevail’s partner organizations, we’d love to consider you for this role as long as you speak with them first, to note your intention to explore new opportunities. Thank you!